High prey drive and cat

Hi folks! I searched the training forum and couldn't find an answer to my question. Of course, I'm googling the heck out of it but might as well ask "the experts"

I have a new adoptee, a 2 year old Mexican rescue who is probably quite a solid mix of various sighthounds. Off leash he chases birds, squirrels (did I mention he can climb trees?), rabbits, etc.

My resident cat (Moby) is an absolute chicken $h!t. To my utter amazement, Moby has been somewhat interested in the dog. I kept them separated by a door for about a week and Moby seemed quite interested in coming into the "dog's side" of the door so I have been spending periods of time with the dog on a 4 foot lead attached to the couch, laying on his bed, and letting the cat come and go as he wants. If the dog is not on a fixed leash then the door is shut and they have no contact. Moby has been shockingly brave around the dog (I'm so proud!) and the dog is doing incredibly well. I'm clicker training him to look at me instead of the cat, but every once in a while the cat moves in for a little sniff and the dog will make a darting motion towards him, which sends Moby flying out of the room. I doubt Moby can withstand many more of those surprises before he gives up and decides the dog is "scary".

A more concerning issue is that twice now the dog has growled and almost snapped at Moby when Moby has approached him while he has a particularly favourite treat or toy. The dog has no problem giving up his toys and treats to me. He knows "drop it" and does so quite willingly so no resource guarding with me. Now I'm taking the dog's toys away when the cat is in the room.

So, to make an incredibly long winded story short: what's the most effective way of teaching a dog that he absolutely CANNOT dart at a cat in the house? "Leave it" command? Spray with water (ugh, don't want to do that, pup is sensitive). I'm willing to be persistent and patient with this for as long as it takes, I just want to make sure I'm doing it right. I want it to be reliable, even if it's a couple of years down the road. Second question: ugh, how do you train a dog out of resource guarding with a cat? He's great with me so I'm not sure how to create a situation where I can reward him for appropriate behaviour.

Laura has a three-part blog post on dealing with dog-dog resource guarding. You could definitely apply the exercises to resource guarding against the cat though. Here's the first one: http://rollinwithrubi.blogspot.ca/2014/02/dogdog-resource-guarding-part-one.html

Sounds like the new kid is halfway there with regards to the cat - if he is able to lie on his bed with the cat in the room without reacting with more than a 'dart' when Moby does something exciting.

Keep up your work with counter-conditioning - while making sure Moby doesn't push him over threshold by getting too close. Try practicing the relaxation protocol (http://www.dogdaysnw.com/doc/Protocol_for_Relaxation-_Karen_Overall.pdf) in a down, on a dog bed, with the cat in the room. Training genuine relaxation will be a long-term project. If you don't mind using corrections and he's a sensitive dog, a 'hey!' when he darts might be sufficient. I wouldn't get any more invasive than that though - wouldn't want corrections to backfire and build negative associations towards your cat.

My rescue is an ex hunting dog and has extremely high prey drive. We also have a cat. I think you are doing things they way you should be. Teach a solid "leave it". Make sure the cat has a place of it's own to escape to where the dog can't go. Training out prey drive takes a LONG time. With repetition and patience you should get there. It sounds like your dog is doing well with the cat being around so you're on your way. In regards to the resource guarding, I would make sure the cat doesn't go around the dog when he has something that he could guard.

Great advice!

I checked out that three-part website. Great ideas, but she doesn't really explain how she goes from having the dog ignore a treat in her closed to fist to being able to "throw handfuls of treats" at her dog's chest while the dog maintains eye contact with her. Wish there was a description of how you get from point A to point B! Great ideas about relaxation though. I'll keep on with my research.

That's an auto leave-it. How you get from point A to point B will depend how fast your dog catches on. Some dogs may need few intermediate steps while some may need things broken down into 38321 intermediate steps. Here's an example of what the progression may look like:

-Leave treats in closed fist.
-Leave treats in open palm.
-Leave treats in open palm set on the floor.
-Leave treats from floor.
-Leave treats set down on floor.
-Leave treats dropped on floor from about 6 inches high.
-Leave treats dropped on floor from a couple feet high.
-Leave treats dropped on floor from waist height, several feet from dog.
-Leave treats dropped on floor from waist height, beside dog.
-Leave treats tossed at dog's paws.
-Leave treats tossed at dog.

Tada. It's all impulse control and can take patience but is a simple (not necessarily easy) procedure.

Awesome!

When she talked about the treat in the closed fist she said that she would give that treat (with the other hand) but I've also heard with the "leave it" command that you shouldn't give the thing you're asking them to "leave" but give them something else instead as a reward?

When I teach leave it, I will give my dog the thing that I asked them to leave - but I will not release them to get it themselves. So if I have a treat on the floor and I ask them to leave it, to reward them I might go pick up that treat and then give it to them, but I wouldn't tell them "ok!" and let them grab it on their own. I don't want to build the habit of them running to grab the thing they were asked to leave, because I feel like they're then more likely to do that when not asked/when it's not okay. Make sense?

That's my take on things at least, others may have different experiences.

I'm working on this with my little rescue girl as well. She actually just wants to play with the cat, but ITRUNSMUSTCHASEOMG! Yes, the paralyzed dog can still sprint. And then she leaps on top of/body slams the cat. The up-shot of her growing up with fifty other dogs in a trailer is that she has excellent bite inhibition.

I've been redirecting Rook onto toys, and she will typically go for a stuffy now if the cat is out of reach. Still working on "leave it" when the chasing urge strikes. Since she's not aggressive I'm not hugely worried. The cat asks for it sometimes, so I don't feel too bad for her. I think if I get her playing with other dogs (Zoe doesn't play with her) it might be better, because she's feeling the loss of all those other dogs.

We're doing It's Yer Choice to help with resource guarding. Rook is the same - no issues with me, but snarks at dogs and cats. She starved for the first eight months of her life, so really it could be worse. I make sure she never feels threatened, and we work on frustration tolerance.